1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air cleaner assembly for a small engine in which a V-type engine main body having front and rear banks V-shaped in the back and forth direction of a body frame is mounted on the body frame and a pair of left and right extending air intake ducts opening forward are respectively connected to both left and right sides of a single air cleaner shared by the front and rear banks. In particular, the invention relates to an improvement in an air cleaner structure.
2. Background Art
Japanese Laid-open Patent document 2006-15963 (“Patent Document 1”) discloses a motorcycle engine in which a pair of left and right extending air intake ducts, which open in the forward direction, are joined to respective sides of a filter housing of an air cleaner shared by both banks of a motorcycle-mounted V-type engine.
In the air cleaner disclosed in Patent Document 1 mentioned above, a pair of left and right extending air intake ducts communicate with an unfiltered air chamber formed in the rear lower portion of the filter housing. A cleaner element forming the ceiling of the unfiltered air chamber interposes between the unfiltered air chamber and a filtered air chamber. The filtered air chamber is formed in the filter housing to spread above and forward of the unfiltered air chamber. A joint member adapted to direct unfiltered air to the rear bank side of the V-type engine is connected to the bottom portion of the filter housing in order to communicate with the filtered air chamber on the unfiltered air chamber side. A joint member adapted to direct unfiltered air to the front bank side of the V-type engine connects the bottom portion of the filter housing to the filtered air chamber on a side separate from the unfiltered air chamber. Thus, air that passes through the cleaner element favors a path that flows toward the rear bank side. Consequently, it is difficult to achieve equal distribution of intake air from the air cleaner to the front and rear banks of the V-type engine main body.
Although the known air cleaner assemblies have some utility for their intended purposes, a need still exists in the art for an improved air cleaner assembly. In particular, there is a need for an improved air cleaner assembly which will overcome the problems of the known filter assemblies.